Rome residents share visions for future at open house

Tuesday

Mar 21, 2017 at 12:01 AMMar 21, 2017 at 9:26 AM

There were poster boards on display, showing what people can expect to see develop around Erie Boulevard, the South James Street neighborhood, East and West Dominick streets and the Erie Canal waterfront, including Bellamy Harbor Park.

Samantha Madison

ROME — Teresa DeLutis and Marie D’Embrosi have lived in Rome their entire lives, so when they heard there was an opportunity to offer their opinions on where the city should go next, they knew they had to be there.

“More people (should) take an interest in what’s going on because a lot of people don’t read the paper and (pay) attention,” DeLutis said. “If you’re not aware of what’s happening, how are you going to have any input in it. … I’d like to see more stores. I don’t like to necessarily go to big stores, sometimes I do, but usually if I just want to run in a store, I don’t want to go a half a mile to find (what I need). I like the little mom and pop stores.”

The pair were part of a large group of Rome residents who attended the city’s Brownfield Opportunity Area open house Monday afternoon at the Capitol Theatre.

There were poster boards on display, showing what people can expect to see develop around Erie Boulevard, the South James Street neighborhood, East and West Dominick streets and the Erie Canal waterfront, including Bellamy Harbor Park.

Among those boards were various stations where people could write down their own ideas or pick one of a number of existing ideas for street signs and bike lanes.

Representatives from the city’s consulting firm Bergmann Associates were on hand to share the progress of each project and talk to residents about what they would like to see built in the city.

Kimberly Baptiste, practice leader for Bergmann, said the goal of the event was to allow residents to be a part of the progression of their city.

“Really (this is) to get some community perspective on end uses, what type of improvements folks would like to see and then also really highlighting some of the investments that have already been made to date,” she said. “Not everyone realizes how much grant money and how much work (has gone into this already).”

Mayor Jacqueline Izzo said that kind of public outreach is exactly the reason the city chose to hire Bergmann Associates as its consulting firm for these development projects.

While there are some projects that are further along and don’t allow for complete public input, she said it’s important for people to have a say in what hasn’t been completely planned out yet.

“There’s a lot of things we can do here,” Izzo said. “A lot of times the community will tell you they don’t have an opportunity to voice their opinions. … We wanted to have more feedback, more opportunities to review and see what we might be doing. And of course there’s the perception that there’s nothing going on here.”

The mayor was thrilled to see the second floor of the theater filled up with people from all different walks of life making their way through the open house. She said it was especially good to see the younger generation in attendance because that’s the age group Izzo would like to see come to and stay in the city.

Those hopes are echoed by many residents, including Sarah Rushton, owner of Engelbert’s Jewelers, and Margaret Spina, who works with Rushton.

The pair grew up together in Rome and want to see it thrive again and encourage younger people with families to stay.

“This is good for the city and what the city needs is to attract young people,” Rushton said. “Young people need to see all of these things happening. … We want to stay here and invest here.”

“We grew up here, and you see people our age that are spending their time trying to get out of the city,” Spina added. “You see a lot of people working hard to build our city up, (though).”

Follow OD_Madison on Twitter or call her at 315-792-5015.

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